With the recent rise in popularity of the Internet, many home computer users are using a modem to access the Internet though the Public Switched Telephone Network ("PSTN") using home telephone lines. The PSTN provides a dedicated circuit from the modem to a server located at an Internet service provider. The server functions as a gateway to the Internet. However, the bandwidth of typical home telephone lines is relatively small, which limits the speed that information can be received from the Internet.
As an alternative to using telephone lines, the Internet can be accessed through coaxial cables using a cable modem. Coaxial cables provides much greater bandwidth than home telephone lines and are widely available to existing cable television subscribers.
Unlike telephone lines, existing coaxial cable infrastructure typically does not provide a dedicated circuit to the home user. Instead, multiple users are usually coupled to the same coaxial cable leading to a server located at an Internet service provider. In addition, television signals are also frequently sent on the same coaxial cable. Therefore, Internet service providers that use coaxial cables must send and receive both data packets that contain Internet data, and control packets.
The control packets provide the computer and the cable modem with information needed to send and receive the data packets, such as what frequency packets flowing out of the cable modem should be transmitted on, what should its transmitter power level be, how many packets may be transmitted, what data packets on the coaxial cable are intended for the cable modem, etc. When an Internet service provider sends a control packet to a computer, the Internet service provider must receive a reply control packet from the computer as part of a handshaking routine between the Internet service provider and the computer. The reply control packet tells the Internet service provider that the computer received and processed the control packet.
Known cable modems typically have associated with them specialized processors, memory, and software for generating and transmitting reply control packets. This specialized computer hardware and software is in addition to the hardware and software within the computer, and therefore increases the costs of equipping a home computer so that it can utilize coaxial cable for Internet access.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a mechanism that uses computer software and hardware that is already found on a typical home computer, or that is widely available, to generate reply control packets and to transmit the reply control packets to an Internet service provider.